Communications networks are delivering more services and carrying greater amounts of multi-protocol traffic at higher data rates. Increased security threats and tighter regulatory compliance requirements can further complicate network operations. Monitoring tools and security tools can be deployed inline to inspect packets and block incoming threats before these threats affect the network and potentially disrupt business.
Deployment of any inline tool in the network carries the risk of the tool becoming a point of failure. Should the inline tool become unavailable it can bring the network link down, making a critical segment of the network unavailable and affecting uptime. To avoid this risk, a bypass switch can sit in front of an inline security or monitoring tool to guarantee network availability. A bypass switch can serve as a bridge between the network and the inline tool. It lets the inline tool inspect and control network traffic as needed while protecting the network from failures within the tool itself by automatically shunting (e.g., bypassing) traffic around the tool when the tool is incapable of passing traffic.